My Two Cents

October 21, 2016 by Ruth 19 Comments

This, my friends, is why I have not gotten involved in any social media wars about the upcoming train wreck we are calling a Presidential election in this country.

I see in my social media feed many who are one issue voters, find “The Biblical Argument for ________” candidate, and generally speaking, people who have their minds made up and have an ax to grind against political party a or b.

Frankly, I’m very discouraged.  I don’t want Hillary Clinton – not because I think she’s the devil, but for the very same reason I believe to be behind the inaction and stagnancy in Washington now.  The Republicans seem to oppose anything remotely envisioned by the Democrats.  It doesn’t seem to matter if it’s good for our country or not.  Yes, we have a two party system so that the views of all the people are represented, but surely there have to causes and issues that are bipartisan in nature.

I loathe the very idea of Donald Trump as president.  He is not good for our country.  This can be seen in the very visceral divide between his staunch supporters and anyone who disagrees.

Because of where I live most of the people I know back the Republican platform, even if they don’t like Trump himself, and will be voting that direction.

Yesterday, one of my social media acquaintances expressed that he would feel the election is rigged if Donald Trump doesn’t win because nobody he knows is voting for Hillary Clinton.  As if all the people he knows represents the entire population.

Honestly, here, people are a little afraid to say they’re voting for the Democratic nominee because of the backlash, the barrage of insults, the fearmongering, and the belittling simply because one party has a different vision for our country than the other.

When there have been back and forth…em…debates?..about who should be president it turns ugly quickly.  Nobody is listening, they’re only formulating responses, insulting each other, and there is seemingly no common ground. I’m hoping that there is a silent majority out there who isn’t towing some party line, who just wants what’s best for the country, and who doesn’t really give two damns whether an idea is Republican or Democrat, only that it’s good.

I wish our country had better to offer than the two leading candidates.  I even considered third party candidates.  It’s hard to take someone seriously if they don’t even know who the leader of North Korea is.  It’s one thing to be Libertarian and believe that the U.S. shouldn’t be intervening in international conflict as much as we do or that we shouldn’t be trying to topple leaders and overturn regimes, but it’s inexcusable not to know anything about what’s going on in the world.  Even if your foreign policy is one of minding our own business we’ve got to know how the hell to make that happen since we’re already involved.

I’m looking down ballot.  The president can only do so much through executive order, so regardless which candidate is elected, unless we can get past the bipartisan bickering and actually come to some kind of compromise we’ll go another, at lease four, and more likely eight years of this same divisive rhetoric we’ve had over the last several years.

It’s disheartening to say the least. Maybe Victoria was right.  Maybe we are going down the crapper.  Too bad shit floats. When the nuclear fallout settles we’ll have nothing left but cockroaches.